Higher Education Curriculum

design and implementation

Curriculum is broadly defined as the totality of

student experiences that occur in the
educational development
Educational development is construed to
happen in educational institutions
The external environment educate us and it
also influences the education in the institution
Curriculum in the institution is formal and its
connection with non-formal environment is a
greater influencing factor than ever before

Factors influencing formal

curriculum
High impact practices

Informal learning

Formal curriculum

Participatory culture

Experimental co-curriculum

Objectives of higher education

University provides opportunities for building

universal knowledge
Liberal education to liberate minds from
established values is one of the accepted
objectives mainly in social sciences and
humanities
Imparting scientific temper is the objective of
science education
Imparting employable skills is the objective for
technology courses

Formal Curriculum

Curriculum is defined as 'why, what, when,

where, how and with whom to learn'.
'why' should explain the objectives of
curriculum

'what' should explain the content of learning

'when' should explain the stage of learning

'where' should explain the physical learning

environment
'how' should explain the pedagogy

Changing Objectives

Imparting employable skills has transcended to

other disciplines
Declining public funding, increasing opportunity
cost of higher education are the main reasons
for emphasizing employable skills
Inter-disciplinary approaches to knowledge
increased the scope for employable skills in
traditional or classical knowledge fields
Basic skills like communication, IT, numeracy,
and learning to earn, improve employability of

What do we expect from a

graduate?

Manage flexible jobs in changing markets

Ability to self produce and self develop
knowledge
Acquire competency within a certain academic
field
Understanding the world of work

Comparing traditional and emerging

curricula
TRADITIONAL

EMERGING

Knowing that

Knowing how

Disciplinary skills

Transferrable skills

Intellectual orientation

Action orientation

Knowledge of process

Knowledge as product

Understanding

Information

Concept based

Issue based

Proposition based

Experimental learning

Content is a contentious issue

Content follows the objectives

Knowledge fields

Employable skills

Inter-disciplinary contents

On-the-job training and internships

Web contents

Learning the content

Learning is a process of acquiring new general knowledge,

skills, etc.
Knowledge is a perpetual experience and reasoning
Knowledge is passively received, but actively built up by the
cognizing subject
Learning is conditioned by the context
Tacit knowledge is embodied, personal and context specific
knowledge which is hard to formalize and communicate

Delivery of content

Traditional talk and chalk

writing as a method of delivery

Learning by doing or enquiry-based learning

Web-based learning

Modern social media, eg twitter

Team based learning

Evaluation

Evaluating the learning outcomes

Measurable outcome

Qualitative evaluation

Evaluation determines what and how to learn

Difficulty in evaluating skills and competencies